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On this day, January 27, 1945, David Dushman drove a Soviet tank through the barbed wire of Auschwitz.
Hat tip for the title, Gillian Brockell, of the Washington Post
RETROPOLIS
To liberate Auschwitz, David Dushman drove a Soviet tank through its barbed wire. Horrors awaited inside.
Dushman was believed to be the last surviving liberator of the Nazi death camp before his death Saturday at 98
By Gillian Brockell
June 7, 2021 at 4:03 p.m. EDT
Children in concentration camp uniforms after the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet army in 1945. (AP)
David Dushman had no idea of the horrors he was about to discover. He was a 21-year-old major in the Red Army in January 1945, when his tank rolled past Krakow, Poland, heading west, pushing the Nazis. At 3 p.m. on Jan. 27, they approached a fence to a camp. It was Auschwitz.
Dushman didn’t enter the death camp through the notorious gate emblazoned with the words “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free). His tank plowed right through the electrified, barbed-wire fence — a fence many prisoners had intentionally jumped into to end their torture.
Dushman, who was Jewish, died Saturday in Munich at 98; he was the last surviving liberator of Auschwitz, the last eyewitness who could speak of its inhumanity, according to Charlotte Knobloch, the president of the Jewish Community of Munich.
His stay at Auschwitz was brief; he only drove his tank over the fence to make a pathway for ground troops in the 322nd Rifle Division and then continued on to “hunt down the fascists,” he told Sueddeutsche newspaper in 2015. But still, what he saw would haunt him for the rest of his life. ... “Skeletons everywhere. From the barracks they staggered, between the dead they sat and lay,” he remembered. “Terrible.”
[ The first transport of Jews to Auschwitz was 997 teenage girls. Few survived. ]
Soviet war veteran David Dushman, center, speaks to people holding Ukrainian flags in 2015. (Markus Schreiber/AP)
{snip}
People in 2020 at the site of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, for observances marking 75 years since the camp's liberation by the Soviet army. (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)
{snip}
By Gillian Brockell
Gillian Brockell is a staff writer for The Washington Post’s history blog, Retropolis. She has been at The Post since 2013 and previously worked as a video editor.
To liberate Auschwitz, David Dushman drove a Soviet tank through its barbed wire. Horrors awaited inside.
Dushman was believed to be the last surviving liberator of the Nazi death camp before his death Saturday at 98
By Gillian Brockell
June 7, 2021 at 4:03 p.m. EDT
Children in concentration camp uniforms after the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet army in 1945. (AP)
David Dushman had no idea of the horrors he was about to discover. He was a 21-year-old major in the Red Army in January 1945, when his tank rolled past Krakow, Poland, heading west, pushing the Nazis. At 3 p.m. on Jan. 27, they approached a fence to a camp. It was Auschwitz.
Dushman didn’t enter the death camp through the notorious gate emblazoned with the words “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free). His tank plowed right through the electrified, barbed-wire fence — a fence many prisoners had intentionally jumped into to end their torture.
Dushman, who was Jewish, died Saturday in Munich at 98; he was the last surviving liberator of Auschwitz, the last eyewitness who could speak of its inhumanity, according to Charlotte Knobloch, the president of the Jewish Community of Munich.
His stay at Auschwitz was brief; he only drove his tank over the fence to make a pathway for ground troops in the 322nd Rifle Division and then continued on to “hunt down the fascists,” he told Sueddeutsche newspaper in 2015. But still, what he saw would haunt him for the rest of his life. ... “Skeletons everywhere. From the barracks they staggered, between the dead they sat and lay,” he remembered. “Terrible.”
[ The first transport of Jews to Auschwitz was 997 teenage girls. Few survived. ]
Soviet war veteran David Dushman, center, speaks to people holding Ukrainian flags in 2015. (Markus Schreiber/AP)
{snip}
People in 2020 at the site of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, for observances marking 75 years since the camp's liberation by the Soviet army. (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)
{snip}
By Gillian Brockell
Gillian Brockell is a staff writer for The Washington Post’s history blog, Retropolis. She has been at The Post since 2013 and previously worked as a video editor.
Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted
Today marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. This letter was written by Vilma Grunwald, who gave it to a guard moments before she entered the gas chamber with her disabled son, John. It was addressed to her husband, Kurt, who'd been put to work elsewhere at the camp.
Link to tweet
Fri Jan 27, 2023: On this day, January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated.
Mon Jan 27, 2020: On this day, January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated.
Monday, May 20, 2019: 79 Years Ago Today; Opening Day at Auschwitz concentration camp
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